1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for coating foods, such as sweets, baked goods and the like, with flowable coating substances, such as chocolate and other icings. The apparatus includes an endless conveyor belt for the coated goods or the goods to be coated and a run-off plate arranged underneath the conveyor belt for excess coating substance. A catch container is provided for receiving the excess coating substance from the run-off plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various constructions of the above-described apparatus are known in the art. They are also called coating or icing machines and are used in the production of bars, pralines, waffles, ice cream, sugar products, baked goods with long shelf lives or fine baked goods, snacks or also fat-free articles. The coating usually consists, for example, of chocolate, caramel, cocoa, icings, icings of shortening or sugar. The coating process is carried out in the liquid state. Following the coating process, the coating substance is cooled and dried to reach the solid state.
In the known apparatus of the above-described type, a conveyor belt is provided which is composed of a braided material or also of belts. Preferably, they are belts of rod braiding. Devices which apply the coating substance to the goods from above and below are arranged above and below the conveyor belt and, thus, above and below the goods to be coated. An excess amount of substance is applied, i.e., more substance is applied than is required for coating the goods. This excess coating substance then drops between the goods, or the coating substance is blown off. The excess substance is collected in a catch container and is returned to be reused. A slightly inclined run-off plate leads to the catch container.
The substances used for coating have the property that they easily solidify which is problematic for the continuous operation of the apparatus. In this particular field, this is called "build-up". This build-up must be prevented or kept within limits which do not impair the continuous operation. The run-off plates are arranged either vertically or inclined to such an extent that the coating substances can flow off by themselves as a result of gravity. Other run-off plates extend horizontally or only slightly inclined, so that the coating substance cannot flow off by itself without the help of appropriate devices.
In the known apparatus of the above-described type, the essentially horizontally extending or slightly inclined run-off plate is cleaned by the returning portion of the conveyor belt, i.e., the conveyor belt takes along the coating substance which has dropped down or has been blown off and moves it toward the catch container. Accordingly, the conveyor belts in these known apparatus are not only used for conveying the goods to be coated or the coated goods, but they also serve as cleaning belts for the run-off plate. This limits the service life of the conveyor belts. This constitutes a weak point because an appropriate maintenance or exchange of the damaged or torn conveyor belts are required. Since the wear of the conveyor belts should be kept as low as possible, this must also be taken into consideration when constructing the apparatus, i.e., at the ends of the conveyor belts where they are deflected, the deflecting radii should be as large as possible, so that the conveyor belts and their components are subjected to as little load as possible. However, this contradicts the requirement of transferring the goods at the beginning and the end of the conveyor belt without problems to other processing stations with other conveyor belts and picking up the goods by these other processing stations. The wires of the braided belt should be as thick as possible. However, this contradicts the requirements made with respect to the transfer, particularly in the case of short goods.